serenity
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It certainly is premature to declare without reservation that China's military turbofan level has reached parity with US and UK.
The US is truly still ahead in turbofan as Chinese discussions on this matter considers that WS-15 of the second program is reaching the level of F119 in materials overall. The design is similarly tuned more towards lower BPR to higher speeds. This is basically reaching level of US in early 2000s. WS-15 development started in 2000s and completing final flight testing like F119 development started in 1980s and completing final flight testing with F-22 in early 2000s.
The thing is WS-15 is the last major turbofan in this technology branch that China invested in. The simultaneous effort is in many other fields of chemical propulsion or we can call air breathing propulsion or combustion. US call their variable cycle engine as ADVENT and China is heavily pursuing variable cycle. No one else is actually active in this field due to funding requirements and so on. WS-15 restarted in the early 2010s due to newer technologies making the initial program too obsolete by the time it would be completed. According to accounts, the initial WS-15 was in various stages of testing before total program reboot to make use of fast improving new technologies. Sort of like choosing to develop a supercar from aluminium when carbon fibre and exotic composites are becoming normal and still choosing to go with older tech.
Hence then the understanding is that 6th generation will be either or a combination of various types of propulsion with most likely candidate as variable cycle for one type, for faster airframes no doubt would require combined cycle engines which China is flight testing all the time in recent years.
WS-15 is but one program of many for current to future generation air vehicles. It is possibly the last mainstream turbofan behind variable cycle types that will have received funding for development and a vehicle to use on. Beyond this is variable cycle, combined cycle engine types, and some other exotics used mainly for intermedium (endo and exo atmospheric) and hypersonic, propelled vehicles.
Since these other forms of engine technologies represent overlapping utility with turbofans (im not counting the variable cycle turbofans) China realized decades ago the importance of investing in all of these rather than thinking turbofans will be the first and final and all there is in military aviation. Just like internal combustion car engines will be challenged and give way to other energy vehicles like hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen combustion, full electric, and in future surely also others.
China is still behind the US and UK in military turbofans and certainly much behind these two in civilian turbofans, arguably ahead of Russia in recent years and around France's level (give some take some in different ways), turbofans are like jet engines, will also phase to give way in utility to other propulsion. For most at least in this decade and next, turbofans of course represent main military fixed wing aviation propulsion.
The US is truly still ahead in turbofan as Chinese discussions on this matter considers that WS-15 of the second program is reaching the level of F119 in materials overall. The design is similarly tuned more towards lower BPR to higher speeds. This is basically reaching level of US in early 2000s. WS-15 development started in 2000s and completing final flight testing like F119 development started in 1980s and completing final flight testing with F-22 in early 2000s.
The thing is WS-15 is the last major turbofan in this technology branch that China invested in. The simultaneous effort is in many other fields of chemical propulsion or we can call air breathing propulsion or combustion. US call their variable cycle engine as ADVENT and China is heavily pursuing variable cycle. No one else is actually active in this field due to funding requirements and so on. WS-15 restarted in the early 2010s due to newer technologies making the initial program too obsolete by the time it would be completed. According to accounts, the initial WS-15 was in various stages of testing before total program reboot to make use of fast improving new technologies. Sort of like choosing to develop a supercar from aluminium when carbon fibre and exotic composites are becoming normal and still choosing to go with older tech.
Hence then the understanding is that 6th generation will be either or a combination of various types of propulsion with most likely candidate as variable cycle for one type, for faster airframes no doubt would require combined cycle engines which China is flight testing all the time in recent years.
WS-15 is but one program of many for current to future generation air vehicles. It is possibly the last mainstream turbofan behind variable cycle types that will have received funding for development and a vehicle to use on. Beyond this is variable cycle, combined cycle engine types, and some other exotics used mainly for intermedium (endo and exo atmospheric) and hypersonic, propelled vehicles.
Since these other forms of engine technologies represent overlapping utility with turbofans (im not counting the variable cycle turbofans) China realized decades ago the importance of investing in all of these rather than thinking turbofans will be the first and final and all there is in military aviation. Just like internal combustion car engines will be challenged and give way to other energy vehicles like hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen combustion, full electric, and in future surely also others.
China is still behind the US and UK in military turbofans and certainly much behind these two in civilian turbofans, arguably ahead of Russia in recent years and around France's level (give some take some in different ways), turbofans are like jet engines, will also phase to give way in utility to other propulsion. For most at least in this decade and next, turbofans of course represent main military fixed wing aviation propulsion.
